Dissertation Blues

On Monday 9th I have a meeting with my two professors about my ongoing dissertation. They will want to know how much I have done towards it and, given that there is only just over a month before the deadline, they will undoubtedly want to see evidence of some serious progress.

This is evidence that I do not have.

What have I done so far then?

1. I have read the fictional novel, 'The Cruel Sea' by Nicholas Monsarrat
2. I have read the memoir 'Wavetops at my Wingtops' by Leslie Baveystock
3. I have read two general histories of the Battle of the Atlantic, one by Donald Macintyre and the other by Andrew Williams.
4. I have read half of the book 'The Cinderrela Service' by Andrew Hendrie
5. I have read half of the novel 'The Enemy Below' by D.A. Rayner
6. I have watched the films 'The Cruel Sea', 'The Enemy Below' and the 'Hunt for the Bismark'.
7. I have skipped through various chapters in various other books in order to devise my 3,000 word 'Dissertation proposal' which I handed in over two months ago.
8. I have spent three days at the National Archives researching my topic and I left with over 50 photographs of documents I can refer back to.


This is pretty much it, and all of it, apart from the last bit - are practically useless as far as answering my title question is concerned.

What I am asking is this, or a variation of it: "WHY was the B24 Liberator so effective in winning the Battle of the Atlantic'.

The answer of course, is that the B24 was the only aircraft held by the Allies that could plug the so called Atlantic 'air gap' - where other patrol craft could not reach. It was in this gap, that in 1943 the U-boat fleet decided to make one last large scale attempt to sabotage Allied efforts in resupplying their European operating base - Great Britain. Hence it was in this pivotal battle that the B24 become something of a war winner. U-boats could operate only with extreme risk in areas which had Allied air cover.

What is perhaps more remarkable about the story is that during the vital months of spring, 1943 Coastal Command and its Allies were able to field only a handful of these B24 bombers - yet it was enough to sufficiently thwart the efforts of the Uboat fleet.

I hope to post onto this site my progress as I embark on a six week blitzkreig of a research/writing session in order to meet my deadline on August 24th. Unforuntately the world is an infinately exciting place and provides a never ending array of distractions or side shows that are of far more importance and - in my opinion - educational value.

Yet I have come to the conclusion that a dissertation is not about learning new things or demonstrating to others what you know. Far from it. A dissertation is merely a test to see if you have the self discipline to perform the same mind numbing task for weeks on end.

Which of course is a highly employable attribute.

And that's the real point.